Toronto Rapper Top5 Films Music Video in Prison Using Smuggled Cellphone

Toronto rapper Top5 was caught recording a music video in his jail cell at the Maplehurst Correctional Complex in June 2023. Ontario prison guards struggled to confiscate the cellphone he used for filming, with one phone being smuggled in a visitor's bra. Despite a strip search in November 2022, guards found nothing as Top5 boasted about recording himself eating cheeseburgers and flushing the phone down the toilet. The unauthorized video, featuring Top5 rapping '21 Questions,' was posted seven months later. Following a murder trial, Top5 claimed to have paid a guard $10,000 to bring in the phone, but the investigation report remains silent on the guard's identity or consequences.

After being cleared of murder charges in September 2024, Top5 faced new charges in January 2025, including unauthorized possession of a firearm. He was stabbed in the UK after attending a concert by Drake but is expected to recover. The incident sheds light on the issue of cellphone smuggling in Canadian prisons, with thousands of seizures reported annually.